Bring Me To Life
by Riko Ozaki
Summary: The story of two lost souls within the main arc of the Evangelion saga. What would happen if these persons met after a few years, after the events of End of Evangelion? Who might say?
1. Chapter 1

**Bring Me To Life**

**By Riko Ozaki**

December 24, 2004 (Original idea and draft)

**Disclaimer:**

The characters portrayed herein are copyrighted to Anno Hideki and Studio Gainax. They are not my creations. If asked, I will pull this prose from the internet if it offends them.

Please excuse any mistakes which I may have made due to syntax and punctuation; English is not my primary language.

Thank you for reading, and please review. It helps me to progress in learning a new language, and prods me to be a better author.

This story was pre-read by 94Saturn and Jintsu.

June 6, 2001 Shinji Ikari's birthday

July 11, 1991 Maya Ibuki's birthday

March 30, 2001 Rei Ayanami's birthday

December 4, 2001 Asuka Langley Soryu's birthday

December 8, 1986 Misato Katsuragi's birthday

_Italics: Thoughts or Journal entries._

Normal: Regular speech between persons.

Journal entries have the date at the end of the entry; normal dialog has dates at the beginning.

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I have been holding on to this story for over ten years and trying to smooth it out and get the best words on the screen. Unfortunately, 94Saturn passed from us before I could publish this. He always thought highly of my effort and pushed me to put this out for your enjoyment.

I can no longer hold on to this, even though I still do not have an ending for it. Many things have happened since I first had this idea and I want to put this out to the community.

Jintsu has been pushing me to publish for ten years, and I think he is finally right.

This story will terminate at Chapter 4 for FFN. Chapter 4 and later are too radical for FFN. Chapters 4-10 will be published on AO3.

I have lost my imagination and ability to write as I did at this time. I wish it was not so. This story is very important to me from the time period it was written in. My time period. My experiences. My life. I felt as though I was Maya at the time and tried to write a better ending for her, as my own life had gotten a better ending.

We always wish a better ending for our heros.

Riko Ozaki February 07, 2019.

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This story is an alternate universe tale; the effects of Third Impact have been reversed somewhat. There is no huge crater from the black moon rising and no widespread destruction from the attacks of the JSSDF.

The story is done in a journal or diary type format from Ibuki Maya's point of view. There will be narrative throughout the story, but the diary entries will give the reader some sense of what is going on in her head.

Asuka fans, this story may not be for you. She will be mentally unbalanced from Third Impact and do some very repugnant things to Shinji.

This tale is rated M for adult situations, and rape. It is not all bad, but with Shinji involved, you _are_ going to have some angst.

This is also a coming-of-age type of story: A what-if Shinji had been given a chance to be normal and live a life like anyone else.

Also Maya is given the spotlight here, because I thought she deserved some happiness after EOE. And a lot of the fan fiction I have read has painted her as a lesbian or worse. I see her as a timid soul who had no one, and who might have had bad experiences from the male of the species.

I know some will scream about out-of-character actions, but remember: It has been three years since Third Impact, or as it is called in the story 'the event' and these people have grown and changed.

Some other changes in the world:

I have changed the age of majority to eighteen for owning property, driving, and drinking. I would think that our government would want to get the population and businesses back up to speed quickly after the event, hence my lowering of that age barrier.

Music has stagnated since the Second Impact. Too much death and destruction have put a damper on creative, positive music. So most people hark back to the earlier times for their music.

Tokyo-3 has taken-up its old name of Hakone once more.

No one speaks of NERV or any thing to do with it because of the subconscious memories retained after the event.

I give Shinji a guitar to play instead of a cello. This is to break from his past, and to have a more positive attitude around others. Besides, it is a little difficult to drag a cello to a park to serenade someone!

This is a romance story between the two most unlikely characters within Neon Genesis. It has its humorous parts, along with the sorrowful ones. It is a tale of joy and misery.

It is a snapshot of what life might have been like, if things were different.

I hope you enjoy it, for I enjoyed creating it.

Riko Ozaki

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_I never thought that I would leave that place of comfort and peace. After having Sempai in my arms in the aftermath of the destruction of the Human Race; otherwise known as Third Impact, and living with her in that make-believe world, I thought that I had everything that I could ever have wanted. After a period of time which I could not measure, I found that I was not really happy with my choice that I had made._

_Oh yes, I was happy,... but everything was so... perfect. Ritsu and I never had any arguments, no disagreements; my world was a slice of heaven._

_I guess that is why it started to become pale and unrealistic to me. I even experimented with having Ritsu do things that I knew she would never do in real life. This then brought me to the realization that I could not stay here. This dream world was for narcissists who could not envision a world without themselves in it. I have __never__ been a vain or self-centered person, so this revelation forced me to leave the warm and comfortable world whichI had created for myself._

_Isn't it wonderful how the mind can play such games upon itself?_

_I woke- up in a wash of moon glow, on a white sand beach and forcefully vomited up the contents of my stomach. After my short period of nausea passed, I looked around to see where I had been placed. A blood-red sea and petrified Mass-Production Evangelion units confronted my sight of this area. I also noted two sets of footprints winding their way towards the interior of this landmass. Carefully rolling away from my spew, I flopped onto my back and studied the star patterns. Everything seemed to be in place; no differences from what I was used to seeing in the skies over Tokyo-Three. Ergo, I must be in Nippon about the same time and place that I left._

_Journal of Ibuki Maya_

_January 3, 2016 (?)_

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_I could hear them arguing again. Her nasal voice with that way she pronounced our language. His voice in counterpoint; a soft rebuttal yet strong in his beliefs. This had been going on for the past two nights. I wish I could bring myself to walk up to them, but I seem paralyzed every time I try to do it. Almost as if some outside force was preventing me from revealing my presence to them._

_It is so lonely here in the city I once knew. I have not encountered another soul since I awoke on that beach, except for them. I wonder if we are the last remnants of humankind. A sorry lot to rekindle the human race, if true: _

_The spoiled and obnoxious girl from Germany. The abused and lonely boy that had the responsibility of saving the Human Race. _

_And myself; the mousy little tech that never made a decision on her own. _

_Humanity is in a world of shit if we are to be its new founders. _

_Now they are arguing about...NO! Don't say that about him! He protected you, and he obviously loved you! How can you be so callous and blind to his feelings for you! _

_Good...leave him. _

_He is better off without you; with your constant berating of him. At least he will now grow without you bending him to your will._

_I just wish that I had someone that cared as deeply for me as he does for her. Why couldn't I have been happy to stay where I was? No friends, no family, and the constant haranguing of him by her. _

_I feel I could die from the loneliness and despair. _

_Journal of Ibuki Maya_

_January 6, 2016 (?)_

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_Things have progressed since people started coming back. I got together with some of the military troops from what used to be NERV, and we started to get this so-called city back on its feet. Some of these military-types were not security. Some were in a field something like the building trades, and were able to get the infrastructure back on an even keel. We now have the basic needs of a community up and running. I helped out with my meager skills of programming to start up the municipal utilities. _

_One of the soldiers has been very kind towards me, and I do feel something for him, but I still cannot get the images of the slaughter in Central Dogma out of my mind. I know I am hurting him by my reticence, but I am still scared by anything in a military uniform._

_Journal of Ibuki Maya_

_Sunday, March 13, 2016 _

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_Tanaka Yoshi and I have come to an agreement. We should just be good friends. I tried to bury the memories of the past and be happy with him, but it didn't work out. I tried, Kami-sama I REALLY TRIED! Yoshi was so patient and caring towards me. He cradled me in his arms as I told him my story. He dried my tears and held me tightly as I relived those horrible memories in Central Dogma. He then told me his story, and I wept again. That night he took my virginity and made me his, but I still had a faint unease about him. We stayed together for almost a year, a very happy and loving year, but my unease kept building. I could smell the leather from the harness and holster when he came home from work. _

_And the gun oil. _

_The worst was the stench he reeked of after he came back from the firing range. _

_I think he knew before I did that it just wasn't working out. I think he could see that small amount of fear etched in my eyes. He was the one to bring the subject up about our relationship. Yoshi was so caring and considerate of me that he wanted me to be happy. And he said that he could see that I was still traumatized by my experiences. We talked for hours and in the end, I led him back to our small bedroom. I gave myself to him fully, knowing that this was to be our last time together. I cried on his shoulder after we had exhausted ourselves, knowing that my treacherous mind had put me in this place of no reward. By the time I woke up in the morning, he was gone. _

_So why am I so unhappy? _

_Because my nightmares walk the streets in military uniforms;_

_Or perhaps the first man to ever care for and love me wears a uniform._

_Sometimes I wish that I had died and never came back._

_Journal of Ibuki Maya_

_Saturday, April 30, 2017_

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_It's all Yoshi's fault! We went out for dinner and some drinks, like we do every month or so, and he started in on me again about being single. Compared me to a Christmas cake! I was about to bash him with the microphone from the karaoke bar when he slyly mentioned that he knew someone like me that was alone also. He had his heart broken, and he just lived to work. Said that the guy wasn't ugly, but couldn't get him close to a razor. Wore his hair in a ponytail. And he just recently opened a bistro downtown in the shopping district._

_Unshaven and a ponytail...alarm bells went off in my mind. I was remembering a certain person who was just too suave and debonair for my likes back then. But I remembered snatches of conversation that led me to believe he was dead._

_Way before the event._

_So it couldn't be him._

_Could it? _

_If Yoshi was trying to fix me up with him, it couldn't be Kaji. Yoshi had chased-off some undesirables that had been sniffing around when they found out that we weren't together anymore. He actually beat one guy for an off-color remark that the asshole pitched at me. _

_Very protective and caring for an ex, if I do say so myself._

_So...this guy must not be too bad, if Yoshi approves of him._

_If I could just get over this military-nightmare thing, I'd take Yoshi back in a heartbeat. But from what the doctors tell me, I'll have this for the rest of my life. _

_Traumatic- Shock Response, or some such. _

_But it still makes the nights cold, dark, and lonely._

_What the hell, I guess I'm not getting any younger._

_DAMN YOU YOSHI, FOR YOUR CHRISTMAS CAKE JOKE!_

_Journal of Ibuki Maya_

_Saturday, June 1, 2019_


	2. Chapter 2

**Bring Me To Life Chapter 2**

**By Riko Ozaki**

This story will terminate at Chapter 4 for FFN. Chapter 4 and later may be too radical for FFN. Chapters 4-10 may be be published on AO3.

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Maya was running a little late getting to the bistro in the shopping district. The first problem was that she had snagged her last pair of hose. After some slight cursing, she gave-up on the idea of stockings, and went with some casual slacks. Next on the agenda, she broke a heel on her favorite pair of black pumps. More cursing. Snagging a pair of comfortable flats, she donned them and hurriedly left her apartment.

The last was a small earthquake, about 2.5 on the Richter scale, which stopped her train. JR Rail would take no chances with its passengers, so the tracks were checked before the trains could move again. So, instead of being twenty minutes early, Maya was now just leaving the train when she should have been meeting Yoshi in front of the bistro for her date.

'_It's almost like Kami-sama doesn't want me to meet this guy.' _Maya angrily thought as she hurriedly strode through the market district. Remembering her instructions, she turned right after passing Kintetsu Department Store. The street was narrow, not much more than a thin alley between the large commercial concerns. Bright sunlight slanted down between the buildings, giving the alley a surreal glow, as dust motes danced in the reflected light.

Just as she reached the fifth establishment on the left, a voice called her name.

"Maya, I'm right here! What are you doing, power walking? Or maybe someone is just a little miffed about being late?" Was the jovial greeting she received from a young man leaning against the gate in front of the bistro.

A man with a well-built and powerful physique topped with military burr-cut black hair, and a pair of horn-rimmed glasses over sad-looking brown eyes, put her anxieties to rest.

"Yoshi, is this it? I almost walked right on past this place."

"Yeah, this is it. Why are you late? It isn't like you to be behind the curve when it comes to time." He said as he softly grasped her elbow and hurriedly steered her into the depths of the establishment.

"Two problems with wardrobe at home, and then the quake", She softly sighed. As her eyes adjusted to the lower level of light within the restaurant, she took note of the way it was furnished. She didn't catch the name of the place when she came in, because of the quick navigation on the part of Yoshi, but from what she did see it looked like a dive. Now that she was inside, she had to surprisingly revamp her first impression.

About every four meters, there was a skylight in the ceiling. This gave the dining area diffused light; a warm gentle spotlight for dining during the mid day. She was also impressed by the amount of wood present in the restaurant. Everywhere she looked was wood: the tables looked like they were solid teak, there was bamboo for railing throughout the bar, and the walls were paneled in a butter-colored Palawan wood. She stopped and listened quietly for a moment, Yoshi stopping with her. She looked at the far end of the eatery and her eyes grew wide.

"There is a pond and fountain down there?"

Yoshi turned his head to look her straight in the eye. With a semi-evil grin plastered on his face, he offhandedly remarked, "Yes and the pond holds Koi, also. I should know; I helped him build it. I and my buddies helped him transform this hovel into the work of art you see before you."

He then bowed in the western form, sweeping his right hand before him, and smarmily stated: "Madam, your table awaits!"

"Quit, you asshole! You're embarrassing me!"

Yoshi, still bent over in his bow, cocked his head sideways, and leered at Maya.

"Just wait, the best is yet to come."

Maya, having taken enough abuse from her friend, used her right foot to mash Yoshi's left ankle.

"Baka kuso! Now which table is ours? And no more crap or I _will_hurt you!"

Baka kuso or 'shit idiot' was Maya's pet name for Yoshi ever since she had learned that he worked in sewage treatment in the military.

"He wanted me to seat you by the pond, so the calming effects of the water would soothe you." Yoshi grated out as he fake-limped towards the back of the eatery.

Maya followed, at a slower pace. She could smell the light fragrance of sandalwood incense, as she got closer to the pond. Looking to the left, her eye was caught by some colors on the wall. No... Not colors. It was a small painting. A painting that made the hairs on the back of her head stand at attention.

"Yo...Yo...shi...What..." Speech deserted Maya as she stood, frozen in shock, her left arm at full extension as she pointed at the painting on the wall.

A painting of a very life-like Unit-01.

Yoshi stopped his crippled act and turned to where Maya had stopped. A frown like an evening thunderstorm overtook his face as he saw what had happened. He quickly strode back to Maya and carefully embraced her. Hugging her close, he murmured in her ear, "It's all right, you aren't there. You're here, and all that was long ago. Let it go...Look around you, Maya! This is the now, over three years after."

Still holding the trembling woman in his arms, Yoshi remembered some of the bad times that he and Maya had been through. The nights when her nightmares had awakened him with a screaming and incoherent woman in their bed. A woman who had done no wrong, but had a ringside seat to a charnel house of horror. Sometimes he had been bruised and bloody after those memories. Other times, he was tear-soaked by her, and mentally drained.

Surprisingly, none of the soldiers from the JSSDF that made the assault on NERV ever returned from Third Impact. If any did, he vowed...

It was one of the reasons he still went to the target range, and took all the courses he could find on unarmed combat.

"Maya, please...sit over here." He pleaded with her, as he moved her past the painting to sit two booths down, right beside the pond and waterfall.

"I...I...Don't know why that happened. I've seen photos of Unit-01 since the event, but I never had anything like that happen to me. I'm sorry, Yoshi. I didn't mean to come apart on you again."

Looking around the place, and seeing that it was empty, he jokingly said, "Well, you really embarrassed me this time, with the crowd they have in here."

Finally looking up from her clasped hands, she noticed the capacity audience for her little display of fear.

_**SMACK!**_

"Baka kuso."

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"So you really helped to put this place together?" Maya mumbled as she wolfed down the last of her excellent order of Lemon Chicken.

"Yah, we saw this skinny shrimp of a kid with glasses, trying to shingle the roof. He already had beat-up thumbs, and had dropped a few roofing tiles, but he was still trying. I think that was what drew us to him...his willingness to keep going, whatever the odds."

Maya nodded in agreement, but then a shudder ran through her frame, like heat lightning. Something in her subconscious mind was wailing with foretold knowledge, but she couldn't quite remember what it was.

"Anyway," Yoshi continued, "We were all from a civil engineering battalion, and we could really help this kid. So we all pitched in. It took us about five weeks, but when we were done, this was the result. We never had to worry about a place to eat, after that. He said to bring family and friends; they would all be on the house. We respect that, and we don't abuse it."

"So when do I get to meet my date of the century? I love his cooking, if he was the one in the kitchen. And he seems to have your seal of approval, so he can't be all-bad. So where is Wonderboy?"

"Wondergirl is dead," a low-tenor voice flatly replied from in front of her.

Maya quickly whipped her head around to face the voice. Standing before her at about three meters, wiping his hands on a towel that was belted to his waist was the person in question. Standing almost two meters in height, a triathlete physique, dark brown hair, and piercing storm-gray eyes framed by aviator-style prescription glasses, the physical force stopped at their table and interjected: "Hi, I'm Aida Kensuke. Pleased to meet you."

In this situation, Maya did what any normal person with her knowledge would do. Her eyes promptly rolled-up in her skull, and she fainted dead away, sliding under the table.

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As consciousness slowly returned to her, Maya heard two male voices before her sight came back on-line.

"...was I supposed to know? I didn't raise my voice or yell, or anything!"

"Ken that painting scared her. And for some reason she has...antsy...saw you."

"...something in her past kind of triggered when she saw me. I don't know...be. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea that you..."

"...both need someone! You are both dying inside because you won't let anyone..."

"Mmmmnn...What did I miss? I heard you talking to ..."

"KENSUKE!" The brown-haired young man emphatically stated, as he looked from Maya to Yoshi. He quickly and repeatedly shifted his Flemish blue eyes from Maya's gaze to the back of Yoshi's head, as if to say: '_Not here; not in front of him.'_

"Kensuke...So...What happened?" Maya queried as she took in the slight subterfuge, and gave him a minute nod.

"It seems that you passed-out upon seeing Ken, here," interjected Yoshi. "You really scared me for a second there, Maya. Are you sure you are all right? Maybe it might be better to try this out again at a different place and time?"

Maya was thinking the same thought, and had just opened her mouth to reply in the positive to Yoshi, when she looked over at 'Kensuke.'

'_He's frowning and looking at the floor. And he is doing that thing with his right hand. He always did that when he was frustrated or angry. Is he angry with...NO! He is angry with himself! He thinks this is his fault! I can't just up and leave like this. Besides, I want to get to the bottom of this little mystery.'_

With her new perspective in mind, she turned to Yoshi and replied, "I think I will go ahead with the date that you set me up with. You can stop being a mother hen and go join your buddies at your favorite watering hole. I think that 'Ken' can manage the rest of the day without you hovering over me."

"Are you sure..."

"YES! Now get out of here so I can talk to Ken and we can decide where we are going to go today."

With the last of his reservations quashed by her last statement, Yoshi got up from the booth and turned to face Kensuke.

"Take care of her, and remember that she is someone that is very special to me." Yoshi said, as he looked Ken square in the eyes, letting him know that there would be hell to pay if he screwed this up.

Ken may have had 8 centimeters in height difference on Yoshi, but the look he received made him feel rather small and vulnerable.

"Don't worry; I'll be on my best behavior."

"You better be."

"YOSHI! Quit browbeating him! Enough, already!"

"Okay, okay...I'm outta here. Talk to you later, Maya."

With that last rejoinder, Yoshi angled past Kensuke and shuffled off to the exit of the bistro, hands in pockets. As the screen door slapped shut behind the Combat Engineer, the two occupants of the room shared a roaring silence.

The tension built until Maya could stand it no longer.

"Shinji..."

"PLEASE Miss Ibuki", Shinji pleaded as he overrode her start to their conversation; "Don't call me by that name. Ikari Shinji never came back from the event. At least that is what the public has been told. I'm just Aida Kensuke, now. I don't want all the attention that the name conjures up. And there are too many people that are angry that someone that they cared about never came back. Ikari Shinji is too easy a scapegoat for those types. So I took the name of one of my friends that never returned."

"I seem to remember a young man that the Marduk Report had chosen as a pilot candidate..."

"He was never a pilot, but he always bugged me to somehow get him in."

Maya looked at the young man in front of her, comparing the old Shinji that she remembered to the new 'Ken' standing before her.

'_Asuka, Asuka, Asuka...you don't know what you so willing threw away.' _

"If I have to call you Kensuke," Maya quipped with a crooked grin, "You have to call me Maya, okay?"

"I guess I can deal with that. Maya." A sunnily smiling Kensuke/Shinji shot back, as he took her hand and lead her out of the booth. "Let me show you the rest of my shop."

"I'd be delighted to see it."

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_I can't believe it! It really was Shinji! Oh, in a few small instances, he is still that boy I remember from those terrible times. He is still shy, but not painfully so, like he was back then. And he still broods on things that he can do nothing about. I could see that when we sat down at the bar in his restaurant. I wondered if he was thinking about Asuka. I mentioned her and he got this squished fish looking face for a second. If I hadn't been watching him closely, I would have missed it. But then his face changed back to normal. He said that Asuka went back to Germany shortly after the event. He tried to pass it off as if it wasn't a big deal, but I could see that it must have really hurt him at the time._

_So we sat at his bar, drank sak_é_, and talked about our lives after the event. I started out and told him about what happened with me, and how I met Yoshi. He talked about Yoshi also. About how they all came over after work and helped Shinji...I mean KEN, put together his restaurant. _

_He has a sense of pride, now. I could see it when he talked about working on his shop, and the way business was going for him._

_BUSINESS! _

_HE CLOSED HIS SHOP FOR THE DAY JUST SO THAT WE COULD TALK AND GET TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER! _

_An awfully expensive date for him!_

_But it made me feel so special, that he would close his doors just for me!_

_I always thought he was kinda cute, in a Bishi kind of way._

_DOWN, GIRL!_

_What am I thinking? He's like, what...nine years younger than me?_

_GRRRRR...Whatever._

_Anyway...Today was his birthday. Before we started on the second bottle of sak_é_, I remembered what had been bugging me that day. I knew all the information on the Children that was in the Magi, so his birthday being today kind of sat in the back of my mind. Gnawing its fingernails. My memory always does that with dates. Some I wish I could forget._

_Getting maudlin here._

_Must remember not to drink so much of his sak_é_. He gets the good stuff. _

_Had a wonderful time, and we are going to have another date next Monday!_

_Kissed him for his birthday as I was leaving._

_He got all tense for an instant, and his eyes were huge from shock, I guess._

_Then he relaxed and kissed me right back._

_I wonder who taught him to kiss like that?_

_Journal of Ibuki Maya_

_Thursday, June 6, 2019_


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